Lucky Devil #4

Lucky Devil #4

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Fran Galán

Lettered by El Torres

After an exorcism gone wrong, down-on-his-luck schlub Stanley finds he's retained all of the demon's supernatural powers and positions himself the leader of an insane worldwide cult—only to find himself pissing off the demons of hell. Now Stanley heads to Hell itself to determine whether or not he should keep these powers of the devil or remove them and go back to his boring life.

What an odd little duck this book is. Stanley gets possessed and he’s mortified by the idea and a lot of folks die. Nice start actually, then we see him take the idea somewhere we weren’t expecting to go and it’s kind of neat and exciting to see. Now we’ve taken yet another fork in the road and we are off on another tangent or direction. I almost have no idea what’s going on but I’m sure as heck captivated by this and all the weird twists & turns and avenues that are taken, kind of like Robert Frost and taking the road less travelled. I love the fact that every time you kind of get comfortable with the direction the story is going it’s all shaken up keeping us on our toes and forever guessing what’s going to happen next.

I’m a 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 that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job showcasing these ever evolving personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages taking us through every turn and twist along the way we are continually taken aback and left wanting more.

I’m impressed with the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I also appreciate how the layers within the story open up avenues to be explored and now that this ragtag team is searching for a way to help Stanley, what they are opening up adds this delicious depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are fantastic. The linework and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work we see also gives it this very unique style to the work. I personally would like to see more backgrounds being used as they do tend to enhance and expand the moments. That being said, the way that we see composition within the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story does make up for a lot. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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Odd, weird, fascinating and definitely intriguing this book is so many things that you don’t expect it to be that it’s one hell of a great read. Pun intended. From the unexpectedness to the interconnectedness of it all what we see defies logical explanations and takes a brain as crazy or at the very least not sane as Stanley’s runs with the most illogical of choices as if they are the natural way of the world. With some strong writing and strangely intense characterisation wrapped up in these stylistic interiors you don’t know whether to laugh or cringe.