In March 1997, the world started to end with a little girl named Meg, and the tree branch that sprouted from her back.
Written by Jeff Lemire Illustrated by Phil Hester With Eric Gapstur and Ryan Cody
A Story About Family
If you’ve read Jeff Lemire’s comics, you know that family and childhood are big sources of inspiration for him. This excellent series debut from Image is no exception. obviously — I mean, it’s called Family Tree.
The dynamics between single mom Loretta, her troubled teenager Josh, and her naive daughter Meg make Family Tree #1 equally entertaining and heartbreaking.
The first issue focuses on Loretta’s worldview and the daily humdrum of her life. Panels showing the inside of her humble home resemble early-2000s episodes of Malcolm and the Middle, a sitcom about a low-income family who are looked down upon by their neighbors. (For the Malcolm in the Middle fans out there, Loretta works at a grocery store, just like Louis. Conspiracy or coincidence?)
Tone and Mood
Loretta narrates the story in a frank, introspective, tone that matches her no-bullshit personality and dry humor. As you flip through the pages, you see her triumph over the people who patronize her, which is, again, just like Louis from Malcolm in the Middle. It is immensely satisfying to see Loretta question her son’s bald principal “What would you know about a strong male presence?” when he implies that her parenting is the reason Josh got caught with weed in his backpack at school. Josh’s absent dad is just one of three big mysteries in Family Tree #1.
This is just one example of how the creators of Family Tree effortlessly foreshadow revelations about family history and the impending doom. Another example of this happens on panel when Loretta makes eye contact with a menacing man at the grocery who clearly isn’t there to buy ingredients for dinner. On the page, he overshadows three panels showing Loretta’s stern reaction to the uncomfortable situation.
Eerie and Economic Art
The dread is palpable on every page, between Loretta’s exasperated facial expressions of the increasingly severe “rash” progressing on her daughter’s arm. The character design and setting are 90s without being cloyingly nostalgic, lending some authenticity to the story. Dull greens, oranges, yellows, and purples reinforce the mood that something dark and sinister — but also strangely beautiful — is unfolding. White spaces within and between panels alleviate some of the emotional heaviness while also bringing important story elements into focus.
When such an intriguing concept is backed by concise writing and genre-defying art, it deserves attention.
Rating
8.7/10
Follow this family drama as it branches out into the mystery and action that Jeff Lemire and his collaborators planted in issue one.
There hasn’t been a shortage of Joker-related content this year. But there’s been a shortage of good films and comics about him. With Jeff Lemire behind the keyboard, “Joker: Killer Smile” is actually worthy of conversation.
I’ve been a fan of Lemire ever since I read A.D. After Death. (Not many people would agree with me on that one.) But to me, Jeff Lemire represents what comics is all about: the marriage of art and literature on the page, distributed to the masses for cheap.
Joker: Killer Smile Is a Beautiful Comic About Beauty
“Joker: Killer Smile” does just that. It’s a beautiful comic about beauty. Literary and artistic, “Killer Smile” hones in on how the Joker sees himself as a performance artist.
When you really think about it, though, the performance artists on display here are Jordie Bellaire (my favorite colorist) and Andrea Sorrentino (the line artist).
Andrea’s line work is substantial. It evokes noir with heavy shadows, extreme closeups, and uneasy camera angles that convey the paranoia of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. There’s no shortage of innovation in their collaboration. Cheekbones and shadows are evoked with color instead of crosshatching. The palette is washed out without being weak.
With plenty of room to breathe, the art carries the weight in this book. It helps that every word in the comic is meant to be there. It’s a relief to see a writer (especially a more experimental one) with the confidence and trust to let the art do the talking.
There are also some nods to Watchmen in “Joker: Killer Smile.” The therapist who brings his work home with him, to the disappointment of his wife. There’s an abundance of Rorschach imagery in the panels. There’s a story within the story, serving the same thematic purpose as “Tales of the Black Freighter” did back in 1986.
There’s Just One Downside to “Joker: Killer Smile”
Like nearly all Joker stories, the plot engine is extremely tired. The I’m A Therapist Who Will Fix Joker trope has been played out — just have your friend tell you about Harleen so you don’t have to spend money on it yourself. Still, this is a really successful interpretation of that premise that feels…different.
“Joker: Killer Smile” is a 9/10. This is a surreal comic that is actually digestible. (No unintelligible Azzarello escapades here.) Better yet, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Buy this book.
Kitty Pride — I mean Kate — is a badass. After the Central Park gate to Krakoa effectively punches her in the face (see below), she channels her frustration at being unable to portal to Krakoa into something productive. She’ll help those who can’t get to Krakoa get there, even if Kate herself can’t pass through* the gates, for reasons unknown.
(*It’s strange, because Kate can physically be on Krakoa, she just can’t conveniently travel to there through the gates.)
When Emma of the Hellfire Trading Company learns about Kate’s unique predicament, she naturally has a business proposition. After some mind-reading conversations, it’s decided that Kate will captain a massive ship, sail around the world, and liberate mutants who are unable to access the gates. It’s on these pages where the art really shines. Kate looks like a hologram/ghost as she discusses things over with Emma, with colorist Federico Blee responsible for that sucessful effect.
Most of the time, the mutants in this predicament are political prisoners of some kind. This issue focuses on Russian mutants who are under military capture. It takes a nine-page, highly choreographed (and weirdly patriotic) fight sequence to bring them down.
Like all of the books of Hickman’s X-Men universe, this issue is tacitly political. But because it’s a tie-in, the creators are allowed to have more fun with it. And writer Gerry Duggan and artist Matteo Lolli did just that. There’s plenty of banter and scrunched facial expressions to go around.
This series isn’t something I’d continue with, but if you like pirate-style adventures, zany X-Men characters, and watching mutants kick communist butt, then this is just for you. The story is about mutant liberation just as much as it is about Kate’s liberation; that is, becoming her own woman.
In 2019, it’s easy to say that a comic is about fascism, white nationalism, totalitarianism, communism, or whatever brand of worldview has captured the general population’s attention, for better or for worse. For Hickman’s work in “House of X” and “Powers of X,” this was especially true.
After all the buildup in those two prequels, “X-Men” #1 is decidedly not for or against any of those ideologies listed above. It doesn’t even allude to them. Instead, it shows people on two sides of a conflict making the best decisions they can to embrace life and protect the people who they love.
“X-Men” #1 focuses on Scott Summers, who has long been one of the most controversial characters in that world. Although he’s the most classically heroic of the X-Men bunch, he’s also had a lot of negative publicity. Issue #1 is told mostly through Scott’s perspective, meaning that you’re reading everything through rose-colored glasses.
In “X-Men” #1, you see the key moments in Scott’s journey from someone afraid to open his eyes to someone “choosing to spend [his] days focused on the things that make [him] want to live.” In the Summer House, situated on a Krakoan biome located adjacent to the Blue Area of the moon (with a bitching view of planet Earth), Scott, Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean, Vulcan, Havok, Calbe, and Rachel live together in an expansive mansion that also serves as a tactical base for mutants. This communal, family-oriented living situation harkens back to the living situations of immigrant families in America during the early 1900s.
Similarly, you have Director Devo, who controls the orchis Forge, humanity’s great doomsday weapon created to save them from extinction. Like Professor Xavier’s face, Devo’s is covered by a device that enhances his powers. In this case, Devo was born blind, but uses the headgear to see — much like Scott Summers.
Though the similarities mentioned above are mostly visual, they harken to some fundamental truth: both men are searching for a way to save their people. This is only possible if they believe in something bigger than themselves: whether that be the weapon that is a community of mutants, or a giant weapon floating in the sky.
“X-Men” #1 is all about finding the commonality between two opposing sides of a major conflict. It’s about discovering how fear, vulnerability, and hope can unite two very different kinds of people for the exact same reasons. And that’s why “X-Men” #1 one of most brave and potentially controversial comics of the year. You won’t want to miss this.
Your first New York Comic Con is the culmination of your investment in comics: literally. It’s an expensive event, and you want to make sure that it’s worth it. Here are some ways to stay sane so that you can extract maximum enjoyment from your time in the overcrowded Javits Center.
#1 Don’t Go to NYCC with a Hangover
The night before attending comic con, make your mom proud. Be the picture of innocence. Go to bed by 10pm at the latest.
Unless you’re a huge fan of Subway and their new Pit Smoked Brisket sandwich, there aren’t viable restaurant options near the Javitz Center, so it’s important to eat up before you shuffle around the conference floors for miles and miles. Eat a big breakfast, hydrate more than usual, and pee it all out before you subject yourself to the endlessly long bathroom lines at the Javits Center.
#2 Use the NYCC App
The app has its limitations — you can’t zoom in on photos of the conference floor to make out the microscopic booth numbers in Artist Alley — but what app doesn’t? Mark the panels that interest you in the weeks leading up to the event. The day of, the app will ping you with alerts in way advance so that you’ll have time to brush your way through the thousands of people standing between you and that Brian K. Vaughan panel.
#3 Read All of The Obnoxious Marketing Emails
You might have realized seven emails ago that THURSDAY BADGES ARE STILL AVAILABLE!!!!, but you can’t let the unrelenting spam drive you to the brink of insanity. These emails are seriously helpful. You’ll be the first to know of surprise guests or changes of plans. If you don’t read the emails, then you might never know how to activate your badge (which is surprisingly difficult).
#4 Go on a Thursday, Not a Saturday
Whether you’re an out-of-towner visiting for the weekend or hardened New Yorker, this rule rings true: NYCC is one of the most crowded, frustrating experiences you will ever have with mankind. Everyone is in your way. Everyone loves comics as much as you do. And no matter how excited you are, this day means a lot more to that loud nine-year-old kid who just cut you off.
Everyone presumes that Saturday will be the best day. The heart of the weekend! The most convenient day! I made this naive mistake, and the inconveniences were immense. This is Comic Con, after all, so why not take the day off work to enjoy one of America’s finest cultural traditions?
#5 Get There Early
Get there before the inevitable exhaustion kicks in and mass grumpiness ensues. The day is designed to be repetitive. Creators and publishers stand still for 10 hours, meeting thousands of people who admire them and their creations. Fans meander the floors, waiting for the chance to praise their favorite creators and publishers. Come in early while the energy levels haven’t been depleted, and there’s still oxygen in the Javits Center.
#6 Find out Where Your 5 Favorite Creators Will Be in Artist Alley
2 of your 5 favorite creators will only be at the booth for one hour that day, and they’ll most definitely be a line to meet them. If you’re at Comic Con, you’ve attained a level of fandom that more than likely means you read comics by more than just 5 creators.
#7 Avoid the Publisher Floor
You’ve been to a comic shop before, right? Unless you are seriously interested in buying overpriced merch or watching people stand in infinitely long lines, I assure you that you can get most of the stuff from NYCC at your local comic shop. So what if it doesn’t have NYCC 2019 branding? There’ll be plenty of hustlers outside selling an adorable knockoff for cheaper.
#8 Come with at Least $50 in Cash
The NYCC buy-in doesn’t stop after your years of patronage to the comics industry, or the hefty ticket price. You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you? This annual spectacle is (mostly) cash only, sucker, so you’d better find some way to scrap together the bills to ball out at NYCC. Comics that are usually $3.99? Try $15.99. And look — that’s part of the fun! These are one-off comics that you can’t get outside of NYCC. Resell them on eBay! Frame them! Burn them in act of defiance! Whatever you do, just bring the money.
Written by Marco B. Bucci Art and Colors by Jacopo Camagni Letters by Fabio Amelia (Arancia Studio)
“Nomen Omen” #1 from Image Comics is a supernatural/fantasy/horror comic that is equally disturbing and confusing. Brought to life by a team of Italian creators, there were a few things lost in translation — and it’s not because of language differences. This is a comic that is too smart for its own good.
In typical Italian fashion, “Nomen Omen” #1 opens with a lusty pretext. (My grandmother immigrated to NYC from Sicily, so I am somewhat qualified to call Italians a lusty people.) Two young women hit the road after they were caught bathing in the moonlight, naked (of course). There’s some other confusing details about their families and plans for the future before they discover the car crash that will kickstart the story into motion.
I’m not here to give you a panel-by-panel recap of “Nomen Omen” #1. But I feel that these first four pages — arguably some of the most important pages in the first issue of a series — represent a larger problem of this story: all of the disorientation that Bucci creates makes it hard to invest in the characters and their story.
The story is punctuated with vague incantations talking about some ominous future, which can be exhilarating and leaving you wanting to know more. There’s some very sexual panels, and very violent ones. There is an entire page of poetry, framed inside a glowing moon, which spoke to the nerdy English major within me. If you’re patient enough to parse the verses, you’ll find some foreshadowing that can help you see through the fog in the coming pages.
Fabio Amelia’s letters bring the story to life. He uses variations in font size, word bubble outlines, color of sound effects to give this story an edge. In a double page splash that depicts the inciting incident in the story, his sound effects rhythmically guide your eyes across the page, and give the action a tribal quality with the repeated “tum” drumming sound. When the evil character speaks at the end of the book, his words are coated in black, outlined by a wobbly bubble that gives his speech a guttural, dark quality.
The art from Jacopo Camagni in “Nomen Omen” #1 has a unique interpretation of manga style, and some of the page/panel layouts are spectacular. The latter half of the book is predominantly black and white, with the exception of a bright, beating heart and pink fur in two consecutive pages. Camangi knows how to create a dramatic, disturbing sequence of action that really move the story forward in the direction Bucci is trying to guide it.
My favorite part about his art is all the attention to detail. In one panel inside the protagonist’s home, her photo wall reveals that she won the Google Science Fair and that her parents support the All Genders Matter movement. This quickly conveys characterization, with no dialogue or captions required. For all his attention to detail in bringing the story elements to life, Camangi barely did any crosshatching, which is a classic way to convey dimension in skin and fabrics. The lack of gritty, fine lines makes some panels fall flat, but Camagni’s expertise in using color for lighting/shadow while masterfully illustrating perspective makes up for that shortage.
And then there’s the incorporation of instagram in the story. I often feel that comic books (and the entertainment industry in general) haven’t found impactful ways to integrate technology into the plots of regular stories (in a more casual way than Black Mirror does). An entire page of the comic resembles an instagram feed, and at the bottom it displays the instagram handle @_nomen.omen_. There is no sign of these panels on that instagram page, and I’m perplexed as to how that account relates to the story — aside from the posts of the rainbow birthday cake, which was featured in the comic.
The artistic features of this story are truly something to behold, and if you’re patient enough, I think Bucci’s writing will find its footing in the issues to come.
Written by Stjepan Šejić Illustrated by Stjepan Šejić Colored by Stjepan Šejić Lettered by Gabriela Downie
Harley Quinn’s story began when Dr. Harleen Quinzel was walking home from the bar, after the pitch for her criminal psychology research grant didn’t go as well as planned. She’d run into the Joker on Gotham’s streets that night, and her life would never be the same.
“Harleen” Book #1 of 3 is really Act One of Three in terms of the overall story. And so Šejić very clearly sets up the circumstances surrounding the main character’s situation.
Harleen Quinzel is a young psychiatrist whose research got funded against all odds, so she’s on a mission to prove herself and get people to look beyond her past. Dr. Quinzel hypothesizes that Gotham’s most hardened criminals have lost their ability to feel empathy, and that restoring that ability could be both rehabilitative and preventative.
She needs to prove her theory on criminal psychology and validate that she’s where she is now because she’s earned it. And all of this hinges on her ability to study DC’s laundry list of A-list criminals: most notably The Joker, who is locked up in Arkham after Batman took him down the night Harley was walking home.
Locked away, the Joker needs an audience, and she’s listening. (It’s her job, after all.)
Stjepan Šejić (pretty much) single handedly made “Harleen” DC’s best Black Label book thus far. Sixty pages full of constantly entertaining panels later, I’m thinking about how impressive it is that one guy can so fully understand the fundamentals of art and storytelling.
“Harleen” #1 is a story about a bright young woman with a tendency for self-sabotage. Narrated by her future-self, it’s structured to show Harley’s reflections on Harleen’s downfall.
Šejić cleverly repeats verbal motifs for symbolic effect in “Harleen” #1. For example, Harley thinks about her budding relationship with The Joker as stars aligning. It suggests that some mystical element wedged itself between Dr. Quinzel and her science, pulling her towards her fate.
The writer/artist also uses visual motifs to this end in “Harleen” #1. Harley constantly draws on the symbolism of light and shadows, poetically saying how when you’re walking toward the light you can’t see your own shadow behind you. To represent this visually, Šejić creates a half-page panel where Dr. Quinzel walking toward her bright future as a psychiatrist studying Arkam’s most notorious criminals, but behind her the shadow of Harley Quinn lurks with a gun and mallet in hand.
Because “Harleen” #1 is told in retrospect, there is a lot of tension between the past and present in the art. The moment The Joker and Dr. Quinzel first met, both characters flank the leftmost and rightmost side of two splash pages, eyes locked on each other, The Joker pointing his gun directly at her, with panels in between showing all her major decisions up to that life-altering moment. Šejić uses this structure to comment on how life is just a series of decisions leading up to one moment that might undo all those decisions, good or bad.
In these ways, the genre elements of thrillers, tragedies, and romance stories comes through in the art of “Harleen” #1. From the moment Dr. Quinzel meets The Joker, before she learns that her research was even funded, she is doomed.
It seems that Harleen’s hypothesis about criminals lacking empathy might only be half of the story. As she unravels her future by inevitably growing closer to The Joker in Books 2 and 3, she might discover they are the way they are because of self-destructive tendencies. Only then will she be able to empathize with them herself, instead of merely sympathizing as a researcher.
Book 1 of “Harleen” looks at the full spectrum of humanity, from good intentions to hidden agendas. It’s an empathetic portrait of a young woman dealing with doubting colleagues, unexpected success, and people who want her to fail to prove their own point.
Written by J.J. Abrams and Henry Abrams Art by Sara Pichelli Assisted Inks by Elisabetta D’Amico Colored by Dave Stewart Letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna
From the moment that Marvel teased its big Spider-Man project on Twitter, everyone started paying attention. Turns out that instead of a new Spider-Man movie, we’d be getting something pretty close to that: a Spider-Man comic written by one of the most prolific directors of action, science fiction, and drama films, J.J. Abrams. (Oh yeah, and his 21 year old son, Henry would be cowriting.)
Given his background, you’d think that Abrams would be perfect to write “Spider-Man” #1, given that the genre relies so heavily on the conventions of action, science fiction, and drama genres. You’d be correct.
“Spider-Man” #1 is a coming-of-age story about Peter Parker’s son, Ben — so puberty is bound to factor into that, complicating things even more. The first third of the ‘Bloodline’ story is a flashback, and the last two-thirds of the story are flash forwarded 12 years into the future, to the present day.
Because of this structure, a lot of the characterization in “Spider-Man” #1 happens off-panel — and that is a big part of this story’s mystery. The Parker family dynamics are laid clear across the page with scenes of tense or subtle dialogue, complemented by private character moments, like Ben discovering a box in the attic containing love letters between his parents and photos from his dad’s past.
The new villain, Cadaverous, is somewhat secondary to the story, but I have to care about the characters before I can understand him in contrast. The Abrams duo are introducing him and his plans very carefully in “Spider-Man” #1 ‘Bloodline.’ As they slowly reveal more about Peter’s past, and how Cadaverous factors into that, the art piques your curiosity even more. Every page featuring Cadaverous is dominated by his towering presence and creepy posture. Wherever Cadaverous goes, he is blanketed in an eerie red color palette. Every time he speaks in wobbly, handwritten letters, blanketed in gray balloons, you can hear his calculated depravity.
So even though Cadaverous is mostly a wild card at this point, the artists tell you what you need to know about him.
This creative team works hard to bring comics readership a cinematic story with emotional impact. “Spider-Man” #1 reads like a perfect storyboard. In the scene where we’re introduced to the main character, Pichelli uses overlapping panels to show him quickly getting ready in the morning before school. This reminded me of the fast-paced scene introducing Miles Morales and his family as he was getting ready for school in the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The attention to detail in “Spider-Man” #1 ‘Bloodline’ is remarkable. No space is wasted. Sound effects stretch across panels and are even positioned at the top and bottom of panels to add even more movement to the action. Word bubbles overlap when two characters are arguing in the car, adding to the sense of claustrophobia and how they’re talking over each other. The (many) tears in this book are rendered so beautifully that I wanted to cry!
The dialogue, cinematographic panel layouts, and distinct atmosphere created with the art, colors, and lettering make this comic a standout among this week’s releases.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
With “Spider-Man” #1, J.J. Abrams and his son Henry write the most meticulously paced, emotional, and suspenseful Spider-Man comic I’ve read this year. With the help of Dave Stewart’s neat colors and Joe Caramanga’s innovative lettering, Sara Pichelli’s crisp art moves with such fluidity that this comic might as well be an animated film.
Nine kids have died, and dozens are missing in Archer’s Peak, Wisconsin. With Something is Killing the Children#1, BOOM! Studios brings us the best horror comic I’ve read all year. In every page, the paranoia is palpable, and each character feels a sense of isolation and doubt.
James, the protagonist, finally made the kind of friends you’d have sleepovers with. On the night of one of those sleepovers, they all die in the woods — moments after he tells them a true (?) story about a monster that resembles the thing that killed them. When James describes the events of that night to the police, he reveals that the story he told his friends during Truth or Dare was made up.
He’s also lying to the cops, and says that he didn’t see anything that night. That he only heard the massacre. Writer James Tynion IV has given us an unreliable narrator to convey this horrific story, and I’m skeptical of everything he says — even though I empathize with him.
Part of the reason I have a complex relationship with this protagonist is because of Werther Dell’Edera’s humanizing art, and Miquel Muerto’s consistently immersive colors. The story is interspersed with extreme closeups that convey anguish, confusion, and sorrow. Distinct hatching adds weight to these facial expressions, and creates shadows that support the mood and atmosphere.
Together, these two artists have created a unique interior style that is unlike anything I’ve gazed upon in recent memory. Particularly, they use two consecutive double-page spreads to show every gory detail of what really happened that night in the woods. (I’ll save that experience for when you pick up the book, but here’s a similar spread below.)
Supporting the gestural brushstrokes and muted watercolors of blue, green, purple, and yellow are Andworld Design’s letters. In a scene where one of James’ classmates accuses him of murdering his friends because he’s gay and was experiencing unrequited love, James says “Shut up” in gray letters that are slightly smaller than the others on the page. Further down that page, he screams in frustration, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Without this contrast, that raw moment of would have lost its effect.
There was only one flaw I noticed in the whole pilot to this gripping series. Earlier in the book, we learn that James’ three dead friends are named Karl, Robbie, and Noah. At the end of the book, when we see the flashback of the massacre, James calls Robbie Tyler. I reread the issue three times to sort this, and still have no answers. I’m assuming it’s a mistake, but will confirm it as I continue to invest myself in this horror tale.
This isn’t just a horror story, though. It’s an analog for how school shootings have damaged our national conscience, how the news ineffectually covers the epidemic, and how police are ill-equipped to combat the problem.
Throughout the debut issue, Tynion’s dialogue resonates with a nation grappling with the reality that children are killing each other, with more and more frequency, more audacity. Here’s a quote from the comic that sums it up: “…the world makes a lot less sense than it used to. And every day that feeling gets a little worse.”
Just in time for #WeddingSeason, Action Lab Comics cordially invites us to Going to the Chapel.
The comic tells the story of Emily Anderson, a bride with cold feet whose wedding is hijacked by bank robbers, all wearing Elvis-themed masks and brandishing shotguns. Emily’s indecision about a lifetime of monogamy isn’t helping — and neither is her dysfunctional family.
David Pepose, the writer behind this twisted ceremony, says Going to the Chapel reads “like if Die Hard got hitched to Wedding Crashers, or if Tarantino had a baby with Arrested Development, and then those two bring that baby to a wedding. It’s tailor-made for fans of comics like Crowded, Assassin Nation, The Fix, or Sex Criminals.” So, yeah…buckle up.
Romantic comedy pioneer David Pepose is joined by Gavin Guidry on art, Liz Kramer on colors, and Ariana Maher plus Colin Bell on letters.
Review of GOING TO THE CHAPEL
The team behind Going to the Chapel delivers an air-tight story with funny dialogue, insightful commentary on relationships, and cinematographic art that adds emotion and depth to the storytelling.
David Pepose writes every character in a unique voice, which makes the story beats feel more authentic. Emily’s indecisiveness and nerves contrast her family’s assertive quirks and husband-to-be Jesse’s fundamental patience and goodness. In the scene where Emily is getting ready for the ceremony, we feel the distress percolating around her. Her father barks orders to caterers over the phone, while her grandmother advises getting a side piece because monogamy is “overrated.” All the while, her niece playing with fire in the background.
With the contrast between Emily’s family and Jesse (the poster boy for Mr. Right) Pepose explores how people seek out partnerships that feel different from what they know. He also implies that might not always be the best approach to a lifetime of love.
All of this characterization is enhanced by Gavin Guidry’s art. He excels at drawing emotive facial expressions (and eyebrows) that give the dialogue sound and feeling. His camera angles that frame these moments are worthy of praise. My favorite is on the first page, which includes a POV shot from one of the Bad Elvis gang’s binoculars.
One thing I’d like to see more of, however, is detailed backgrounds in close-up and extreme close-up camera angles. Even though the flat backgrounds create moments of stillness in an otherwise hectic plot, my eyes prefer to dance over details.
Page 7 of Going to the Chapel
Liz Kramer adds depths to the lines with her stunning colors. Pinks and yellows dominate the pages, and create a romantic, sunset glow. Her use of light and shadow adds dimension to the page, especially when building textures like fabric and hair.
Ariana Maher and Colin Bell on letters make the longer word bubbles digestible, and are careful to differentiate sound-sources like the television and telephone from regular noise. Their sound effects are colorful and distinct, but fit seamlessly into the panel without disrupting the established color palette.
Rating: 9/10
Romantic Comedies and Comics
In the world of comics, familiar genres like action, noir, fantasy, Westerns, and horror have ruled for decades. But romantic comedies? I’m hard-pressed to come up with even one — that is, until I read Going to the Chapel.
David’s painfully aware of how romantic comedies are usually associated with film, and that’s precisely whey he’s introducing the genre to comics. Releasing this story in 2019 is a bold, calculated move, coming at a time when the #ComicsGate crowd is increasingly vocal against stories that don’t cater to the white, heterosexual, cisgender male demographic.
Hedging his bet that the comics community will embrace a new genre, David includes elements of more established tropes that a broad audience identifies with, like violent story beats, comedic dialogue, and Western themes. These traits come together to give Going to the Chapel a personality that just might establish Pepose as an auteur in the industry.
Interview with Writer David Pepose
David first reached out to me after I accidentally tagged him in a Newsarama review I was sharing from Secret Society Comics’ Twitter — which is @ssexclusives, for those of you who are making the regrettable/embarrassing mistake of not following us. He was courteous about the whole mishap, and saved face by saying he liked the reviews we post here on the site.
Since then, I’ve been following David’s successful career and five-time Ringo-nominated series, Spencer & Locke. I figured out that David really meant what he said when when he reached out to me about writing an advance review for Going to the Chapel.
Since I knew he was a classy gentleman and grassroots creator, I asked to interview him. We discussed not only his latest project, but also the comics industry at large.
David and I spoke about the idea behind Going to the Chapel, and what it’s bringing to the comics industry.
Preview Pages for GOING TO THE CHAPEL
Check out Action Lab’s pitch for Going to the Chapelhere, or read on below.
“Say yes to distress in GOING TO THE CHAPEL #1, an action-packed romantic comedy from Ringo Award-nominated writer David Pepose (Spencer & Locke) and superstar artist Gavin Guidry (The Death Defying) at Action Lab: Danger Zone.
Emily Anderson’s big day was the wedding from hell — and that was before the bank robbers showed up. What do a conflicted bride, her dysfunctional family, a gang of Elvis-themed crooks, and one relentless sheriff have in common? They’re all about to discover love is the ultimate hostage situation. Fans of Crowded, Assassin Nation, The Fix, and Sex Criminals should say “I do” to GOING TO THE CHAPEL #1, available in comic shops and on digital devices September 4, 2019!”
$3.99 | 22 pgs. | Action Lab: Danger Zone | T+ | On sale SEPT. 4
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Secret Society Comics 