Dead Dog's Bite #2

Dead Dog’s Bite #2

Dark Horse Comics 2021

By Tyler Boss

Questions begin to arise. Like what exactly is going on here? Joe decides to get into local politics and takes a field trip to a candy factory after hours. All that and a bag of sweets in the second chapter of this thrilling, chilling mystery.

Oh my goodness for me this is still something akin to The Twilight Zone meets Nancy Drew and the result is one of those mind trippy excellence in storytelling. This might be among my new favourite series to come out this year. Watching Joe go about her business in search of her missing friend is leading into all these leaks of weird information about the prominent folks in town. I like that we see this gone about the way we do and just the fact that Joe has a polaroid camera is beyond enjoyment for me. Still this is the kind of awesome stuff that I’m talking about when it comes to the Nancy Drew angle, well that and she has the most awesome secret lair that anyone could possibly want!

I am a fan of the way that this is being told. How we see the sequence of events unfold along with how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. From the Twilight Zone opening with that ultra cool narration to her stops around town everything seems to be done with a precise purpose to it. The character development is utterly phenomenal and it’s interesting to see just through looks, glances and behaviour, the way they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter, seem to flesh them out. Some might have a biased slant but then again when are those who are in power in such a small town not the most upright citizens, NOT. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we are drawn deeper and deeper into the story whether we like it or not, spoiler alert we do like it a lot!

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, strengthen and even emerge is what keeps this fresh, new and interesting with each turn of the page. Also how we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow while also moving the story ever forward is pretty magnificent to see.

The interiors here are brilliantly rendered. How we see the linework and how through the varying weights and techniques we see this spellbinding detail work emerge is astonishing. How we see the backgrounds and how they work within the composition within the panels not only enhance the moments, gleefully at times, but also provide us with depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. How we see the page layouts with the angles and perspective within the panels manage to showcase this mindbogglingly talented eye for storytelling is beyond me. The colour work is pretty magnificent to see as well. How the various hues and tones within the panels are utilised to create thes shading, highlights and shadow work are beautifully rendered. Light sources and how they cast shadows is so well conceived and executed here.

This is the kind of town I kind of want to live in where if you're intrepid enough you can know all the dirty little secrets everyone has with a little bit of determination and knowhow. Also I have to say that Joe and Chief while they won’t admit it do have some admiration for the other and if Joe keeps this up she’ll either be arrested or the two will be in cahoots soon enough. This is my supposition but with the facts at hand I'll stand by this. This is a very intelligently written story with dark humour and dark motives, warnings and detective work that fits in-between these absolute perfect interior artwork pages.