Nine Stones #1

Nine Stones #1

Behemoth Entertainment 2021

By Samuel Spano

Disturbing dreams shake Alistair "Allie" Jacobi's nights. But his daytime life is not much better. His father, the boss of a criminal organization, has decided that it's time for his son to gain experience in the underworld. So Allie, 19, finds himself doing an "internship" in a convenience store run by the man who, under the cover of home deliveries, is selling drugs to the entire city. To teach him the "job" is Christopher, an older guy. The bond created between the two of them will give life to dark presences and disturbing and enigmatic premonitions.

This is interesting. There are factors to this story that are strongly suggestive and others that play out a little subtly and as everything works together we see this intriguing tale start to unfold. I like the idea that Allie’s father wants to teach him the ins and outs of the “family business” by making him work at the lowest rung. In this case it seems that is running drugs around town under the guise of delivering groceries. It isn’t the most groundbreaking idea but it is rather effective. Our introduction to Allie however tells us that something isn’t right with this young man, who looks 15 or 16 in this, and this is what engages the reader in the story and keep reading.

I am very much enjoying 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 exceptionally well rendered. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in bringing the personalities to the forefront. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing the characters, the story and the world they inhabit really does capture the reader in its web.

The interiors here are fantastic. It seems very much like some talented computer generated work and between the opening swirls of colour and later the darkness show some amazing creativity and imagination. I do wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised as there are a lot of open spaces. Within the composition of the panels we get some good depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The faces, facial expressions and body language are excellently rendered and help to further the characterisation, oh and when Chris takes that shirt off yeah i’d have that freudian slip as well. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great understanding of how colour works.

Now I don’t know what the darkness represents or if it’s real or simply imagined in his, Allie, mind but I do have my own theory on this. I think it represents something he is keeping repressed and now that there’s a catalyst, in Chris, those repressed thoughts and feelings are working their way to the forefront. I could be way off base but that’s what it seems like to me and if I’m not mistaken the feelings aren’t exactly one-sided and the exchange where this is made clear is really interesting. It also showcases just how naive and inexperienced in life Allie is and it’s somewhat endearing.

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The writing is great, it shows us this intriguing and somewhat ambiguous story that has this charming characterisation and some utterly delightful interiors. I have to say that I love Behemoth and I’ve yet to come across a book from them that hasn’t been an intelligent and interesting read. The promise of what’s to come is exciting and of course there’s that whole wanting to see if what you think is happening actually is. This could be a very unique and interesting coming of age story and I highly recommend you give this a try.