Geiger #3

Geiger #3

Mad Ghost/Image Comics 2021

Written by Geoff Johns

Illustrated by Gary Frank

Coloured by Brad Anderson

Lettered by Rob Leigh

How do you make a monster? Geiger’s tragic origins revealed, from his time before the war to his fateful meeting with the doomed Dr. Molotov. All secrets will be laid bare when the King of Las Vegas invades Geiger’s compound.

I am left gobsmacked issue after issue of this book, yes we’re only on three but damn if this isn’t one of the most amazingly weird badarse stories around right now. I mean c’mon the past and present collide here and it isn’t going to be something you want to miss. How is Geiger connected with the boy king and will the kids be safe with him now that he’s rescued them from those mutated creatures? All this and more lie inside this issue and you’ll see things that will amaze you, thrill you and run the gauntlet of emotions with each turn of the page so prepare yourself for nonstop action, adventure and yes even emotional heartache! Hyperbole aside, well it’s all actually true but, this really is something that has a lot of everything and it’s all blended better than a fruit smoothie.

I am thrilled with the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is utterly amazing as seen through the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we’re captivated and a bit mesmerised by what we see.

I am enjoying how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen while new ones emerge. It is within these layers that the backstory continues to grow and the characterisation gets that much more intense. This is where the bits lie that work with the bigger picture as well as swirl around adding depth and complexity to the book. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

I am loving, absolutely bloody loving the interiors here. I’ve always enjoyed Gary’s work but i dunno what it is about this book in particular that makes me think this really is the best his stuff has ever looked. The linework is beyond brilliant and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level of quality in the detail work is astonishingly well rendered. I’d love to see more backgrounds but with the way we see the composition within the panels bringing us this depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is mindbogglingly brilliant. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a masters eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see is equally as brilliantly laid down. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows someone with a great understanding of how colour works. The way we see the shading and the impact it gives the reader is undeniably brilliant.

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Every week a book comes out that steals the spotlight from all others and this is that book for me. It continues to grow stronger and stronger with each turn of the page and that it grips the reader with such intensity is bloody marvellous. There is a reason this keeps going back to print after selling out and that’s because this book is mindbogglingly phenomenal.