Black Magick #1
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Nicola Scott
Image Comics
Four pages into Black Magic #1 I was thinking the book was likely set in an era of the past, and then one cellphone ring and the storyline reveals itself to be a modern tale.
It was a great opening by writer Greg Rucka.
Now that simple twist worked because the scene was a witches’ circle of ritual, with dialogue reading accurate and true, another plus given how often books and Hollywood gravitate to hyperbole.
The story shifts and we find a member of the coven is a police officer.
It turns out Detective Black has been called to a hostage situation where the man with the gun wants to talk only to her.
I won’t spoil the rest, but by book’s end there is a huge mystery hinted at, and frankly I was under the book’s spell.
The art by Nicola Scott is interested here. He uses black and white for the most part with occasional colour elements, the veins in a bloodshot eye, or the flames of a fire.
I’m not a particularly huge fan of B&W, but here with the colour elements for effect, I am satisfied.
That said Scott’s art is not dynamic. It won’t grab fans on a thumb through at the comic shop.
But you should buy this one anyway, because issue #1 hints at something which could be outstanding as the series unfolds.
Pretty Deadly, Vol I: The Shrike
Written by Kelly Sue Deconnick
Art by Emma Rios
Image Comics
It is a bold step to build the mythos of Hell from the ground up.
Yet Kelly Sue Deconnick takes on the challenge in Pretty Deadly, Vol I: The Shrike which collects issues #1- #5 of the series.
How does she do?
Well the story’s narrators are a butterfly and a skeletal rabbit, which screams quirky from the get go.
That the story is set in the old west is another bit of the strangeness. There isn’t a particular reason for the setting, although truth be told, the western setting was the first thing that attracted me.
Next was the art of Emma Rios. If you want to create a story of this grand a scale, one defining the realm of the dead, and that realms connection to the land of the living the art better be up to the task. Rios scores big here. The art is done with bold, almost garish, strokes at times. It is dark and shadowed when it needs to be.
The action pops from the page fitting of shoot-outs and sword fights between near gods and immortals.
And the blood drips from the panels when that too is called for.
The writing, well you are going to get where Deconnick is going, or you are going to be lost in the labyrinth of the strangeness. Which will depend on how willingly you give over to the ‘ballad’. If you let yourself fall under the waves of the grand story and let it simply carry you forward, accepting you will be bruised hitting a few rocks, but knowing the destination will be worth it, you will emerge a bit brain tired, but immensely satisfied.
If you chose to fight the natural current of this tale, you will become exhausted. You will end up caught in eddies of confusion, and have to wander the shore back, to try the swim anew. It will be a journey you may not enjoy very much.
So buy this book, give yourself to Deconnick’s story completely, and become a fan. I know that is what happened for me.
