Hollow Heart #05

Hollow Heart #05

Vault Comics 2021

Written & Lettered by Paul Allor

Illustrated by Paul Tucker

EL is alone in the world, pursued closely by some who wish to protect him, some who wish to harm him, and some who are simply doing a job. As regular citizens react to the monster in their midst, EL begins to reconsider his choices, wondering if he should have stayed with Mateo—or sought a more permanent form of escape.

I have to admit last issues revelations did not make me a happy camper. Part of me says okay I get it, he’ll be easier to manage if he thinks he’s escaped will be more willing to learn and grow. The part is the mad as heck part and feels just as used, lied to and manipulated which kind of makes ya feel low as dirt. That was an underhanded dirty trick they played and I’m not sure I’ll ever trust them again. This my friends and frenemies is me being totally invested in this story and that Paul has done such an amazing job writing this to this degree that you are this invested is amazing. El isn’t the only one in this issue of worthy note either so let’s see shall we.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development through how we see the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter really manages to really make them feel real. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story it finds a way to touch us in the feels liked we’d never expected.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen is fantastic. The avenues we see being explored and the new ones that are opening up promise to be interesting should they be explored. That whole dance floor action and conversation whoa nelly. The way that we see everything in the layers being utilised to add extra depth and complexity to the story is marvellous. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is greatly achieved.

I just wish the interiors here were tighter man, more detailed with varied weights and techniques being utilised. This one weight linework, while managing to convey pretty much everything we need to see and feel, isn’t my thing. The creativity and imagination we see in El and how he’s brought to life is magnificent and he’s just so friggin cool, specially with his insides exposed to the outside world. The is a fair bit of backgrounds being utilised and that makes me a happy camper and they enhance the moments while bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solid eye for storytelling. The colour work is fantastic! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is sensational.

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I am such a fan of this series. With multiple folks having their arcs play out around the larger one they are all a part of and seeing some truly nasty, gifted and disparaging images and notions make for rather interesting and intriguing reading. There is some extremely heartwrenching storytelling happening here and the writing is spectacular, the characterisation is marvellous and the interiors bring it to us all in technicolour so we can’t miss a single moment.