The Eighth Immortal #3

The Eighth Immortal #3

Source Point Press 2021

Written by Jacob Murray

Illustrated by Alie Li Barnes

Lettered by Lettersquids

Curipan connects with a side of herself she'd long forgotten, and awakens a new power that frames her past in a new light. Kikan reconsiders his devotion to his wife, and Daniel's parents wrestle with their son's mysterious abilities. Meanwhile, General McLeod leaves a trail of bodies in his wake as he searches for a new host.

This is one of the most unexpected treats that I have come across in quite some time. I mean aside from the American Manga feel to the interiors. I mean the opening here is nothing at all what I was expecting to see and yet there it is right in our faces and how this ties into the past and how careless it seems it in the present it manages to capture the readers imagination and engages them in ways that go far beyond what we see on the surface. There is just something about this that has this kind of magical pull that makes us want to know more and more and why the General is searching for a new host.

I am loving the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. I am really impressed with the way that we see the events occur and how they lead to more questions than answers. Because this of course is a kind of hook where we keep coming back to see just what those answers are and do they match up with the ones we’ve managed to come up with on our own. The character development we see is interesting because when you are immortal and you’ve suffered trauma and loss time seems to fester those wounds making you more than a little crazy. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it keeps the reader enrapt upon the pages.

I gotta say that the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen is exceptionally well done. That with how we see everything work together to create the story’s ebb & flow manages to move the story ever forward.

This american manga feel is really rather pretty but there are way too many open and empty panels, sure we see the character but there’s nothing else. I abhor this much wasted space as it’s a perfect opportunity to flesh out where they are and enhance the moments. The linework is beautiful to see and how the varying weights are utilised to create this kind of detail work really makes the faces and facial expressions along with the body language further the characterisation. How we see the composition within the panels do bring us some nice 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 pops of colour we see is so well placed and so interesting in what they demonstrate.

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For some reason this book just sneaks up on you and really finds it way into your core so that you are fascinated by the events that you see. Is the child reincarnated and do the seven have to kill children who manifest immortality like they do with the adults as we’ve seen early on? There is something about the General that I swear is same person who was mauled by that bear whom the others left for dead. Are any of these answers on the horizon, I don’t know but I’m hoping that they are. In the meantime I’ll just keep coming back to watch the crazy unfold in this interesting, engaging and outside the box thinking form of storytelling.