3/22/2023 0 Comments Schell game lightsmith![]() ![]() In this case, perception is reality, as becoming an archetype strips one of individual thought and action. "Picker" is about the process of becoming an archetype: the sort of person you see on a subway and think of in a particular way. "Gold, Silver, Death" starts as a work procedural and ends with an intended victim of the a crime being one step ahead of the person who was going to harm him. With three four-page stories and a ten-page story, Pielli keeps his stories brief and crisp, giving us premise and conclusion for these EC comics-flavored stories of malice and horror. Issue #7 is perhaps the strongest of the whole series. The contrast between these hulking, mysterious figures and the understated myth-telling of the narrative makes it all the more effective. The other story in the issue, "The God Snare", dips into the Jack Kirby playbook for the design of the giant, armored god figures he introduces. Both stories simply feel rushed, as though Pielli was trying to beat a deadline for inclusion in the anthologies these stories first appeared in. The ideas here are solid but the execution is sloppy, both in terms of the art (I had trouble making out some of the action on some of the pages) and overall execution (sloppy lettering and a significant number of spelling errors). The rest of the contents of #6 mostly consisted of material I had seen earlier, including two stories from his "Lightsmith" characters: werewolves and other shape changers engaging in training and troubleshooting of some sort. There's a touch of the grotesque in his character design, aided by his thick brush work. Along the way, I like the way Pielli explores horror-movie tropes. The final reveal of who is likely responsible for the forest uprising here is clever and surprising while being instantly recognizable. Along the way, Pielli interjects a myth about a cruel and clever bird and how the forest rose up against it, with the dawning realization that the bird was a stand-in for man. There's something wonderfully absurd about the image of someone being reduced to a pile of leaves surrounded by clothes. Issues #6 and #7 finish up the first chapter of the forest-horror story "Driftwood", a classic nature vs man story that features logs attacking people and turning them into leaves. Indestructible Universe Quarterly continues to be his grab-bag for anthology work, webcomics and other ephemera. Morgan Pielli specializes in elegantly designed minicomics that feature unusual genre stories. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |