Theron Couch
Don’t Forget Your Briefcase #1
(W) Eliot Rahal (A) Phillip Sevy (C) Warnia K. Sahadewa (L) Frank Cvetkovik
Everywhere the President goes, there is a military liaison who follows, carrying a briefcase with the codes to launch a nuclear strike––and it’s just been lost. This is the story about what happens when a ten-year-old boy finds a nuclear football and accidentally brings the world to the brink of annihilation.
Don’t Forget Your Briefcase #1 takes a long time to get going. Rahal slow-rolls the introduction of both the “nuclear football” and two of the series’ major characters. That said, the issue’s dialogue is crisp. Though it at times has excessive detail, the dialogue flows quickly from one character to the next. Despite the very slowly developing story, the issue still reads quickly.
Sevy draws compelling characters, with enough detail to flesh out features and emotions, but not overloaded with lines or shading. Sahadewa’s color choices are vivid, making most of the issue pop off the page. But it never takes on a too-bright, hyper real quality. These choices are particularly compelling in main character Elmo.
Don’t Forget Your Briefcase #1 may start slow, but it’s worth it for the shocking final pages. What will follow is sure to be a unique story.
Final order cutoff: June 2 / In stores: June 25
Wild Animals #1
(W) Ed Brisson (A) Andy Kuhn (C) Dee Cunniffe (L) Rob Jones
Neil’s life has been falling apart ever since his father was killed by crooked cops. Fifteen years later, Neil’s mother lays on her deathbed and he’s stuck in a dead-end job, has nowhere to live, and no hope to speak of. Life keeps kicking Neil and he keeps taking it, too frightened to fight back. Until now. With his world crumbling around him, Neil finds himself backed into a corner, with no choice but to make a stand and right the wrongs that have haunted him for years. Revenge is a dangerous path to walk and the deeper Neil goes, the more he realizes that violence is all consuming. Perfect for fans of gritty crime thrillers like Criminal and Parker, Brisson and Kuhn deliver a hard-hitting, high-stakes story that pulls no punches.
Neil has all the makings of a tragic character in Wild Animals #1, easy to sympathize with–right up until the final pages when Brisson tests the reader’s ability to root for the series’ main character. But by that time, he’s woven significant complexity into both the character and story. There is more at work here than just a “crime thriller.”
Kuhn’s art is detailed, both in settings and with characters. The latter are at times drawn with very liberal linework, usually in high stress moments. Neil feels perfectly ordinary for much of the issue, with Kuhn finding definite emotion in moments such as when he is with his dying grandmother. This style works even better late in the issue during a scene where Neil is acting on his rage. Kuhn’s lines and the shading that is more fully black shapes than subtle lines gives the character an almost animal quality. Cunniffe’s colors further punch up these moments.
Wild Animals #1 isn’t out to make a statement per se, but Brisson taps into certain parts of society’s growing disaffection for wealthy corporations and individuals. The art pushes that emotion even further. As a result, this first issue hints at a story that is more complex than an ordinary crime thriller.
Final order cutoff: June 16 / In stores: July 9
Beneath
(W) Steven S. DeKnight (A/C) Michael Gaydos (L) Toben Racicot
Originally released by Comixology Originals
Deputy Sheriff Jess Delgado is tasked with transporting the sole survivor of a mysterious attack along the Texas-Mexico border to CoreCivil, a for-profit immigration detention center closing down due to wide-spread protests. Housing only a handful remaining detainees and manned by a skeleton crew of disgruntled guards, the detention center becomes a desperate battle ground when something otherworldly emerges from deep below the earth. Something that only fears the light. Deputy Delgado must pull together the guards and detainees – two groups that hate and fear each other – to survive the night. Or fall to the vengeance of the things that live beneath.
Beneath‘s story is a pretty obvious metaphor by the time it ends. But DeKnight is smart in not leaning hard into that until well into the story’s second half. Instead, he plays up the horror aspect which works very well. The subterranean monster concept is very effective because DeKnight avoids revealing what is killing people. Instead, the characters just get pulled down, screaming.
The characters are well developed despite the story not necessarily focusing on that in detail. DeKnight’s dialogue is very efficient, communicating plot and character details with ease.
Gaydos leans into a darker, muted color palette for almost the entirety of the graphic novel. Late in the issue he goes bright for a flashback, but mostly he plays into feelings of the frightening unknown that the darker, muted colors invite. He finds a great deal of emotion in the characters. DeKnight and Gaydos smartly limit how often the creatures are seen and keep them largely in darker settings when they are.
Monster horror fans who missed Beneath when it first came out via Comixology absolutely owe it to themselves to pick this up. Beneath is easily one of the best horror stories to hit the shelves recently.
Final order cutoff: June 23 / In stores: July 16
