The Shepard: The Path of Souls #1

The Shepard: The Path Of Souls #1

Black Caravan/Scout Comics 2021

Written & Created by Andrea Lorenzo Molinari & Roberto Xavier Molinari

Illustrated by Jess Hara & Kyle Huston

Lettered by DC Hopkins

Black Caravan Imprint:

Prof. Lawrence Miller (a.k.a. The Shepherd) and his companions are wandering in the Seam, the transitioning place between this world and whatever comes next. While traveling, they stumble on a particular district of the Seam that functions as a hospital of sorts for the souls of warriors who have died in combat. It appears that they have come to a peculiar version of Operation Phantom Fury, the 2nd Battle of Fallujah (November 2004). But this is the afterlife... and things aren't always what they seem. Enjoy the first issue of this NON-STOP! title followed by the entire story collected soon after in one volume.

I am a fan of this franchise and I have been since I read the first issue. It’s been a while since I read the last issue and yet when I started reading it all came flooding back to me. That a story can flood your memories with what has come before should tell you how good, strong and powerful that the story actually is. This is some really good work folks and it is a series you need to have ordered for you if it isn’t at your store.

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 and how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development is utterly fantastic! With the narration, the dialogue, the character interactions as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter and what this does so magnificently is bring their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and the world they live in which keeps us engaged and invested in the story.

I really like the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and strengthen. The layers open up avenues to be explored and those that won’t but they all add some of the great 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 utterly sensational! The linework is clean, crisp and sharp and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level of detail to the work we see throughout is phenomenally well rendered. I’m thrilled with how we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how 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 really extremely nice to see. 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 various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work we see shows an extraordinary eye for how colour works. That we see colour utilised to create the depth and dimension in the work so that no linework is needed to create the detail is mindbogglingly brilliant!

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This book is really rather extraordinary for a number of reasons and aside from this really strong writing and dynamic characterisation the interior artwork is stunning and while this is what gets us in the door it’s the intangibles that keep us coming back. There is some beautiful outside the box thinking going on with this series and this issue hammers that home in a spectacular manner. It draws the reader in, engages their mind and gets them invested in the book in these magnificent ways. I cannot recommend this highly enough it really is one of those that will take you by surprise and you’ll yourself lost in this world.