For Molly #1: A Sad Tale Begins

It doesn’t come off as a surprise that For Molly was initially the script of a movie that never happened, as author Gabe Cheng tells us. There’s a strong cinematographic feel to these pages, which is captured perfectly by artist Benjamin Sawyer’s movement of what would be different shots and camera perspectives. The first few pages, with what feels like an off voice accompanying us while we see one of the two main characters (Molly, the dog) running in the rain, feel like the perfect visual introduction to a film. I could almost hear a thrilling soundtrack as I got comfy into my sofa and started reading the issue.

The cinematographic style goes even further when we get to our main character and the next scenes focusing on Greg and his existential pain, anguish and guilt, as he gets comforted by his sisters, in yet another film-like panel of the three of them looking at the window, warning us this kind of company in the loneliness will be an emotional center of the story. From there, the story continues this thrilling dark almost-like-filmed structure towards the end of the issue, which, consequently, is the beginning of our big journey. In that sense, the cover has already put us on track of this companionship centered journey and dark setting (and special mention to Isabella Cheng’s variant cover, that highlights Greg finding Molly for the first time in a very sweet and mysterious light).

There’s some stuff in this comic, especially when it gets cartoonish, that doesn’t sit well with me artistically, like the big onomatopoeias or the sometimes too clumsy too action-filled scenes near the end of it. But then comes a witty dialogue about the “human vs. dog war”, or a raven that interacts with our talking dog in the middle of the night, or just simply that last panel in the woods as we see our two main characters going into this mysterious adventure; and those details just save it. The just get you interested in this sad tale, one that we know already is gonna change our character and gets us closer to Cheng’s thoughts and worries, even through a completely fictional world we still have to discover.