O.B.E. Out of Body Experience #3

O.B.E. Out of Body Experience #3

Antarctic Press 2021

Written by C.M. Bratton & Kerry Valderrama

Illustrated by Christopher Allen

Coloured by Lee Duhig

Lettered by Doug Dlin & Christopher Allen

As the truth begins to unravel, Cole and Amari learn more about the origins of the beating heart cadavers, victims physically alive, but otherwise dead. Seeking answers, Cole visits the Missions for an unsettling conversation with Mother Lucia. With echoes of his past haunting him, Cole is ready to confront the killer, only to discover the danger is far more complex than he ever believed-and Amari's life is now at stake.

This just gets more and more interesting and complex with each new issue that comes out. I am still not one hundred percent certain just what exactly is going on here, and yes I am enjoying this fact immensely, but as the story keeps unfolding the more I am beginning to understand. The more we see of Cole’s past the more we can understand and relate to him and this actually helps us to understand the story better as well. Not so ironically it is also Amari that helps us understand what an OBEer is and how this plays so heavily into this.

I am loving 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 they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. This makes them more relatable which brings us further into the story. The pacing we see taking us through the pages revealing more and more of the story along with this level of characterisation is utterly marvellous.

I really appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. These layers, or avenues, that we see being explored and how they add depth, dimension and complexity to the story while bringing the various other characters deeper into this. The more that Cole learns and the more revelations that are revealed the more we want to see. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved amazingly well.

I really like the interiors here as well. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level of detailed work throughout the book is sensational. The way that we see backgrounds being utilised is phenomenal and it makes me wish they were utilised more often because how they expand and enhance the moments is fantastic. The way they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is excellent. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is exquisitely rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows an amazing eye for how colour works.

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Cerebral in nature with such intelligent writing and witty characterisation alongside these spectacular interiors brings this unique story to life so incredibly well. You really have to read this to understand the full scope of the genius behind this story. That Antarctic Press encourages such amazing creators to unleash this kind of potential is beyond expectations.