Deadbox #1

Deadbox #1

Vault Comics 2021

Written by Mark Russell

Illustrated by Benjamin Tiesma

Coloured by Vladimir Popov

Lettered by Jim Campbell

Welcome to the town of Lost Turkey, where the main source of entertainment is a cursed DVD machine that seems to know more about the fate of its citizens than they do.

This was one hell of an introductory issue and it raises questions, engages the reader and raises the hackles on the back of your neck. This really starts off with such an interesting narration that immediately grabs the readers’ attention and makes you realise just how little our so-called modern society has really advanced. It is also where we meet Penny who is the central character here and she’s the catalyst for how this story is being told. Now we’ve all seen those Redbox movie boxes and they were popular before the internet took hold and the need to rent videos ended. This box however is unique and Penny’s father installed the box before he gets sick and she needs to come home from college to care for him. We have no idea what he’s sick with and quite honestly it’s the kind of mystery we want to see.

I am in love with the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is phenomenal in how we see the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing the characters as well as the world that they live in.

How we see this being structured and how the layers in the story begin to emerge and grow is spectacularly well rendered. These layers are where we see this amazing characterisation and the plot twists and whether they work with the main story or not they add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. I think the myriad of personalities that come into the store in this out of the way town is pretty sensational and I mean that in every iteration of the word. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

The interiors here are great and have a very distinct style to them. I am very much enjoying how we see the linework and it’s varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work throughout the book. It really makes them so distinctive and shows us their personalities. The way we see the backgrounds enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels is exceptionally well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a magnificent eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered as well. How the various hues and tones with the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered brilliantly, and how we see the future in the film with the clothes and such is a perfect sample. The creativity and imagination that we see is utterly marvellous to see.

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The story within a story within a story is brilliantly handled by Mark and what we see and how it works to tell the story is simply bloody amazing. I love Mark’s writing and how he’s able to craft a story and make everything feel as important to learning what is going on. Whether some are red herrings or not it all feels as if it means something. With some of the most insanely great writing and very dynamic and distinctive interior artwork is going to change the way you think about storytelling.