Anybody else reading Robert Kirkman's Outcast from Image?
I read the first year or so of it before I fell out of comics for a while, and was really impressed with the art by Paul Azaceta and the colouring by Elizabeth Breitweiser. Since I got drawn back in, I've caught up with the collected editions, and I'm just as impressed with the writing - it reads much better in longer chunks.
It's about a young guy called Kyle who's a pariah in his hometown because everybody thinks he beat his now-estranged wife and daughter. In fact, his wife was possessed by a demon-like entity and he was defending his daughter from her. His touch has the power to cast out the demons (usually involving considerably violence), but they seem to be attracted them to people close to him - his mother was possessed when he was a child and abused him. He eventually cast the demon out of her, but put her in a coma.
These possessions are on the increase, and the local pastor, Reverend John Anderson, who has an unshakeable faith in God even if he doesn't like him very much, is convinced they are actual demons from hell. Kyle doesn't believe in God, and wants to know what the demons are and what they want with him. The demons recognise him, and call him "Outcast" - either because he can cast them out, or because he's an outcast from his community, or both, or something else.
The storytelling is quite "decompressed" - it spends a lot of time on moments, which is great for building atmosphere and character, but means you don't get a lot of story per issue - that's why it reads better in collections. I haven't read much else from Kirkman - not a zombie fan, so I avoided The Walking Dead - but I'm very impressed with the slow build he's done in this series. We're close to the end - the most recent issue is 44, and Kirkman has announced that the series will end with issue 48 - and it's definitely building to a climax.
The art and colouring are fantastic - they're what drew me to the series. Paul Azaceta is a very naturalistic artist, not a million miles from David Mazzuchelli's stuff, probably heavily photo-referenced, with a heavy brush line that's full of character and gets looser as the series goes on. Elizabeth Breitweiser colours it in flat shapes with a textured, dry-brush effect, and very autumnal colours that break out into intense, bright colours in hightened moments. There's a fantastic sense of place - the small rural town it's set in is very convicingly rendered. A couple of examples from the first issue:
The covers are also awesome. My favourite is this one, from Volume 4:
I read the first year or so of it before I fell out of comics for a while, and was really impressed with the art by Paul Azaceta and the colouring by Elizabeth Breitweiser. Since I got drawn back in, I've caught up with the collected editions, and I'm just as impressed with the writing - it reads much better in longer chunks.
It's about a young guy called Kyle who's a pariah in his hometown because everybody thinks he beat his now-estranged wife and daughter. In fact, his wife was possessed by a demon-like entity and he was defending his daughter from her. His touch has the power to cast out the demons (usually involving considerably violence), but they seem to be attracted them to people close to him - his mother was possessed when he was a child and abused him. He eventually cast the demon out of her, but put her in a coma.
These possessions are on the increase, and the local pastor, Reverend John Anderson, who has an unshakeable faith in God even if he doesn't like him very much, is convinced they are actual demons from hell. Kyle doesn't believe in God, and wants to know what the demons are and what they want with him. The demons recognise him, and call him "Outcast" - either because he can cast them out, or because he's an outcast from his community, or both, or something else.
The storytelling is quite "decompressed" - it spends a lot of time on moments, which is great for building atmosphere and character, but means you don't get a lot of story per issue - that's why it reads better in collections. I haven't read much else from Kirkman - not a zombie fan, so I avoided The Walking Dead - but I'm very impressed with the slow build he's done in this series. We're close to the end - the most recent issue is 44, and Kirkman has announced that the series will end with issue 48 - and it's definitely building to a climax.
The art and colouring are fantastic - they're what drew me to the series. Paul Azaceta is a very naturalistic artist, not a million miles from David Mazzuchelli's stuff, probably heavily photo-referenced, with a heavy brush line that's full of character and gets looser as the series goes on. Elizabeth Breitweiser colours it in flat shapes with a textured, dry-brush effect, and very autumnal colours that break out into intense, bright colours in hightened moments. There's a fantastic sense of place - the small rural town it's set in is very convicingly rendered. A couple of examples from the first issue:
The covers are also awesome. My favourite is this one, from Volume 4: