AND WE LOVE YOU (Spoiler-free Review)

“It don’t seem fair; today just disappeared…”

– Pearl Jam, “Light Years”

There’s only been one other book that was this hard to review. That book was Sean Lewis and Caitlin Yarsky’s beautiful, breathtaking Bliss #8. Even mentioning that book, my eyes are starting to tear up. Well, I guess we can add And I Love You to that list too. My wife handed me the package; once I knew who it was from, I was stoked to read creator Fell Hound’s latest.. I reviewed her Kickstarter-turned-Scout Comics’ one-shot Commander Rao and fell in love instantly. It was such an honest tale of tragedy and love. There’s a line in my review where I said you should put Fell Hound on your list of folks to watch out for. I hope you listened.

And We Love You carries on with Julie’s story from Commander Rao. We get a deeper insight into her life and pain. And this is where Fell Hound’s words dance with your soul in a story that’s rife with the violence of war and violence of the heart. The heart wants what it wants. Hound’s message of the heart is what the industry needs. It’s what the world needs, now more than ever. Reading through the book multiple times since it arrived, I found myself stepping into the panels and remembering what it was like leaving for deployment and THANKFULLY returning from deployment. Going through the emotional homecomings never got old in my multiple deployment career. But what about those who never got to come home. More importantly, what about those who never came home and had to hide who they were. Who they loved. 

Going back to my Commander Rao review, I said I needed more, and I got it. I also got some ugly tears to go along with it. The visuals and lettering are haunting and induce short-breathed gasp after short-breathed gasp. Lucas Gattoni’s knack for bringing sounds to life is uncanny and filled with passion for his craft, a la Richard Starkings. Beautiful.